DarleneCrossover: 7Training
by Hardwing
Summary: Training is the best way to prepare for new situations, go with some of the clan trying to get through it...


__

I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas and for the characters of his ficverse.

****

7.Training

"My right leg," Hudson groaned, "it hurts down from the knee."

Deborah swallowed while her face turned gray.

"My love, this can't..." She bit her lip, continuing calmer. "Your leg can't hurt anymore."

Hudson stared at his Angel of the sea, at first unbelieving for a moment, then in growing shock.

Unbelievably, he straightened up, staring at the place where his right leg should be, just to see a stump... a pitiful stump.

"No..." He groaned, falling back on the bed.

"Moore said he had no choice." Deborah explained. "It would have killed you if he had waited."

"Then he should have let me die..." The elder gargoyle replied, closing his eyes where tears were threatening to emit.

---

"Yeah..." Jarred began, happy that his sister was back and to be able to say something. "Lucifia said she wouldn't't attack us here."

"She lied." Darlene told him, angry on herself that she had come to believe that for even a second.

"No…" Lana replied very silently. "She didn't't kidnap me."

All eyes, except her grandmother's, were now directed on her.

"I went by myself." She whispered, somehow hoping that her mother overheard it.

---

"I had to bring her something..." She began. "One of grandmother's artifacts."

"**WHAT!**" Darlene screamed while jumping up, her tail swing around.

---

"As I have to face that I can't protect you completely anymore." Her mother explained, "So you need to learn to protect yourself."

Lana groaned.

"Training by grandma?" She asked, remembering the talk between her mother and Demona she had heard over once.

"Training by the clan." Her mother replied with a hard voice. "I already talked with Goliath about it and he agreed to care for that there is someone who will teach you all you need to know to defend yourself."

6.Betrayal

****

13.08.98; 20:58; Castle Wyvern, Medical station:

Hudson lay on his bed, staring ahead to the doors of the station.

Deborah sat on the chair, next to the bed, looking on her mate in the meanwhile.

Finally, Hudson sighed.

"I thought this human would at least be punctual," he lamented, feeling sick of waiting.

Deborah nodded. She could have said to him that the doctor still had time, but knew better since she shared his growing impatience.

Moore had explained to them the basics, that Hudson would need training to let his body get used to the new situation, but hadn't classified this more, saying to them that he had to check the opportunities himself.

"Ye know ye don't need to stay with me." Hudson reminded her for maybe the third time. "The hatchlings need training."

Deborah shook her head, looking hard on her mate.

"The leader gave me free nights," she explained. "I will use them."

"The hatchlings…" Hudson began.

"Have already survived three nights without training." Deborah stopped him. "And if they forget too much, they will have to learn more the following nights. Now, you need me."

"I haven't said so." Hudson replied, feeling anger slowly entering his mind.

His voice seemingly showed this since Deborah didn't reply, but gave him a slightly hurt look.

This was the moment when their keen ears heard the door to the station opening and steps coming closer, along with another noise…

The mates saw how Dr. Moore entered, as he brought a wheelchair with him, and their talk became forgotten for the moment.

"No." Hudson explained.

"Hudson, I understand why you don't like it." Moore told his patient while parking the wheelchair, specially modified to take high weights, in front of the bed. "But it is just for bringing you to the room I prepared and back."

Hudson rose on his bed, sitting at the left side of the bed and letting his left leg hang over it. After a second, he let himself fall on the ground, landing on three of his remaining limbs.

"I may not be able to stand, but I can still move." he explained, limping forward to the doctor on his now three legs. "And I sure won't need one of these things."

Moore looked down on his patient, then on Deborah, who had risen from her chair.

"However you wish." the doctor gave in, knowing the stubbornness of his patients all too well.

****

13.08.98; 21:01; Castle Wyvern:

Thersities, Darlene with Gem in her arms, and Jarred landed on one of Castle Wyvern's towers, high over Manhattan.

An unhappy Lana landed a moment later, followed by a male gargoyle of her age called Jack. Goliath had offered them two gargoyles, as companions for their way to the castle and back to her home, since Demona hadn't want to come with them. Darlene had agreed thankfully.

She hadn't been very surprised to look in the happy face of Thersities when the bodyguards arrived, just as she wasn't really surprised to recognize one of the young males who had shown an interest in her daughter in the past, to be the other one.

When Lana began climbing down the battlement, the young male, Tom, as he had introduced himself, extended his claw as help, which she accepted with a stressed look to her mother.

The color of Tom's skin was a dark brown, and he had four wings instead of two, like most gargoyles. His head was hairless, just covered by two lines of horns, which met at the forehead, just to flee from each other and becoming larger while moving up the head and down the back in which midst they returned the process until they met again at the tail, which ending. They reminded Lana of the devil.

Darlene didn't notice this act of politeness, but looked around on the castle, noticing the gargoyles standing around on various towers and places, who were definitely not just enjoying the outlook.

After Darlene had taken a look over every guard she could recognize, which hadn't been easy as all the other gargoyles were reveling the night outside, she looked back to her children.

"Come, let's go into the great hall," she said, looking to Jarred. "the other hatchlings should be there." then she looked to Lana. "And maybe we'll meet Goliath there and learn whom he has chosen as your trainer."

Lana's answer out of unrecognizable murmuring was not really enthusiastic, but she followed her mother docile since she had no interest in further trouble.

Some minutes later, they had reached the great hall where, livid as ever, half of the clan seemed gathered. Talking to each other in their own smaller circles, based mostly after age, but partly even so by common interest or stories which were told.

Not many noticed the arrival of Darlene's family and even less, like one of the two gargbeasts sitting in the corner near the fireplace, paid them much attention… at least until Lana entered and she felt nearly all eyes get centered on her.

News spreads fast here, Lana guessed, while rubbing her arm uncomfortably

Nearly all eyes returned fast to their previous interests, with just a few looking longer on her with a look in their eyes, which weren't as friendly as they had been nights before.

"Please don't hold this to them." Tom asked her "They just don't understand it."

Lana looked surprised to the young male.

"I mean, you were scared and it has all been very much for you," he explained. "Most of the clan won't hold it to you, what was with… her. I'm sure they won't."

How wonderful, Lana thought sarcastically.

Yet a part of her felt better by the words of this gargoyle.

Jarred meanwhile looked around to find the other hatchlings, who he hadn't seen in five nights, which seemed like an eternity for him.

Finally, he discovered a group of hatchlings entering the hall and ran up to them.

"Hi!" he greeted them.

"Hello, Jarred." Connor greeted back with a smile on his beak.

"So you finally came here too," Eve, the pale-green, white-haired female, noticed with her eyes sparkling with fun.

The other hatchlings added their own greetings and quickly went over into a happy chatter.

Darlene looked at this scene for some seconds, with a slight smile, until she noticed Goliath coming in, an elder female by his side who was a bit lame on her left, through an old wound acquired in a fight.

"Brother?" she greeted him, yet she still had a problem to call someone so, as he was once the one love of her mother. "How are you?"

"Fine." the clan leader replied. "And you faced no problems on your way here?"

Darlene shook her head, then looking to Thersities and Tom with a smile.

"None, thanks to two good warriors protecting us." she explained, making Thersities grin ecstatically.

"Oh yes…" she suddenly could hear a female voice whispering in the distant. "Our brother could show them hiding places in the city where they will never be found."

The suppressed giggles showed that actually some agreed with them in this.

Darlene ignored them and instead gave the female beside Goliath, a nod.

"I guess you will teach Lana?" she asked her.

"Yes, I will show your young one what she has to know to be a warrior." the elder explained in a hard voice.

Lana looked at the elder gargoyle angrily, as she didn't like to be called 'young one' and she didn't like the way this elder studied her.

She felt like a pound of flesh, being studied before sold.

"Would it be possible if I could witness her first training lesson?" Darlene asked the elder gargoyle.

"Nay," the scarred elder replied. "Such would just distract her."

Darlene's face became a bit disappointed and Goliath thought about asking his former drillmaster to make at least this time an exception from the rule, but then she nodded.

"Okay." she explained, giving Lana a smile thus, which she didn't like at all.

"Come on then, lass." the elder told the young one while turning around and beginning to walk away. "Time ye learn to go the way of a warrior."

Lana's shoulders sacked and she gave her mother a last, begging look, which she returned with an amused smile, before Lana followed the elder to her fate.

****

13.08.98; 21:18; Castle Wyvern, at some floors:

The two gargoyles followed Doctor Moore through the floors of the castle. Hudson in his own way, as his mate found… it wasn't that he walked on all fours, even when most of the clan did it just when they ran. It was that he didn't walk, but let his arms reach forward just to pull the leg after it again and again.

Deborah could see the stress her mate had by doing this, in his eyes, as could the members of the clan whom they met on their way through the floors, but she knew that even more it would have stressed and hurt him if he had to be brought to their destination by this thing…

Reaching a door, Dr. Moore coughed.

"I first thought about using the training room for it." he explained, looking to Hudson who tried to kneel on one leg, yet had to use one claw to stay so. "But Goliath convinced me that a special training room might be more appreciated."

Deborah nodded, while Hudson just looked on the door containing things helping him by his _rehabilitation,_ as Moore had called it. Since the old warrior didn't believe it would contain a magic serum to give him back his lost leg, he felt no enthusiasm about it, but it brought him out off his bed and this was very good.

Moore opened the door and led the mates went in.

It was a room, which had many similarities with the clan's training room on the first look. Two mats on the floor, a small ladder hanging on the wall beside a chair, and something Hudson couldn't really identify, standing in the middle of the room.

Moore closed the door behind them and went over to a locker standing on the other side of the room.

"Now what is this about?" Hudson asked. "How shall this serve my _rehabilitation_?"

Meanwhile, he had recognized the thing in the middle of the room by remembering one documentary he once saw. It was used in hospitals to make patients relearn their abilities to walk after they had healed a broken leg… just that his leg wasn't broken, but gone.

"Losing a limb is something, which can't be handled by your body so easily, even with some doses of stone-sleep." Doctor Moore explained. "Your body needs to learn to function normally in this situation for once."

As if to underline this, he put one heavy dumbbell out of the half-opened locker, followed by a second.

"For once?" Deborah asked skeptically, standing beside her mate. "What comes later?"

"This." Moore answered by opening the locker completely and revealing two crutches in it. "At least if you wish so, Hudson."

Hudson looked on the crutches with a knot growing in his stomach. They looked very much like the ones Elisa had to use for some time after Broadway had shot her, except that these seemed to be made of another metal.

"Gargoyles may not have the same need, or wish to walk upward as humans," Moore said, noticing the skeptical look of both gargoyles, "but I don't think it is wrong to offer you this way of walking, if you wish."

Hudson thought about it.

"Aye…" he agreed, finding it the best from the other alternatives. "I'm ready to try these things, doctor."

Hudson moved towards the locker on his three legs, but a gesture of the doctor stopped him.

"I said later," he explained. "After some training."

"I can't see why I need training for such," the old warrior noted.

Doctor Moore kneeled down to be on eye level with his patient.

"Patients who need to walk on crutches, have to find a new balance first." Moore said. "And we need to strengthen your muscles so that they can replace the strength of your right leg."

"My muscles are strong enough, lad." Hudson explained firmly. "Besides, ye know that my kind has stronger muscles than yours."

Moore nodded.

"Yes, but you even so have a larger weight and…" he stopped in the middle of the sentences, when Hudson gave him a hard look.

Moore had wanted to speak of the generally greater weight that gargoyles had, compared with humans, yet he hadn't to when he looked on the massive stomach of this gargoyle to know how it had sounded.

"Ye mean I should loose weight?" Hudson asked, more than slightly irritated by this.

"No!" Moore replied, even when his medical knowledge told him that this gargoyle indeed needed to loose some dozens of pounds "I just meant that…"

"Let him try it." Deborah suggested by going to both men's sides, while looking in the doctor's face "My mate may surprise you."

Moore looked up, seeing in the gargess's eyes the same stubborn look as in her mate's.

"I'm asking myself why I even try to give you counsel?" he complained, standing up and turning to the locker. "At least the hatchlings listen to me."

With these words, Moore took both crutches out of the locker.

"Please go to the ladder and make yourself stand upwards." Moore told Hudson while looking to him.

While Hudson did so, Deborah took a closer look on the crutches on what Moore offered them to him

"Of what metal are they forged of?" she asked since she had taken them and noticed that they weighed less than iron.

"Titanium." Moore explained.

With this word, he walked to Hudson who had managed to rise, standing on his sole left leg and holding himself with his claws, clutching the ladder.

Moore checked what was left of the old gargoyle's right leg and then looked up, satisfied, taking the crutches to fix them probably for the gargoyle's height.

Meanwhile, Hudson felt his remaining leg starting to protest against the load it carried, first through growing pains, now through a soft, but uncontrollable shaking.

The doctor couldn't see it since he was occupied with the crutches, yet a look in the face of his mate showed that **she** had seen it and was unable to hide her worry before him.

Their eyes met and for one second, Hudson felt his mouth become dry, before in an act of great strength in willpower, he obtained the control about his leg again and stopped the shaking.

"So." Moore explained, returning his attention to his patient. "Now try to use this."

Moore gave one of the crutches in Hudson's left claw.

Hudson grabbed the crutch, as he had seen Elisa done years before and put some of his weight on his new leg, feeling instantly much of the pain in his leg, going away.

"Good." Moore noticed, watching this critically. "Now move the crutch a bit more to the left."

Hudson did so and felt his balance become even better and following his intuition, he allowed his right claw to let loose so that he now stood on his own.

Deborah watched him from behind.

"Now try to stand on both." Dr. Moore advised, handing him the other crutch in his right claw.

Hudson did so and felt the pain in his leg vanishing a bit more, when the muscles of his arms overtook more of his body's weight.

His arms began to protest by the unusual way of stress.

"Now put the crutches a bit more forward, so that the upper part of your body shows a bit forward." Moore instructed him.

Hudson tried so, when it happened.

The old warrior centered his weight on the left crutch and tried to move the right one forward a bit, when it slid away. For the touch of a second, Hudson tried to hold himself by clutching his feet-claw on the ground, but it came to fast and too surprising, and a moment later he felt himself fall backward.

Before Moore could even think on doing something, Hudson felt two strong arms grabbing him under his arms in the mid of the air and making his fall a soft sinking to the floor.

Feeling his bottom touching the ground, Hudson lips emitted a suppressed growl while light shimmered under his closed eyes. It took him one heavy breath until he managed to calm down his frustration and fully register the pain in all remaining limps, except the tail.

"We can try it again next time." Moore told him calmly, while taking up the crutches.

Hudson took a look in the worried face of his mate, who had kneeled beside him and nodded.

"Aye." he gave in, having learned painfully the limits of his old body once again.

Hudson looked to the dumbbells standing at the locker when he recognized that he had left his sword on his bed in the medical station. For the first time, since he became a warrior, he wasn't ready to protect, even if it was just himself.

****

13.08.98; 21:27; Castle Wyvern, Training room:

Lana followed the elder until she reached a door, which looked the same to Lana as the various ones they had passed already. Yet when the elder opened it, Lana recognized that a soft material had armored the door.

The second thing she learned was that maybe the room had been made soundproof, since as soon as the door was opened, she could hear loud voices coming from within that her sensitive ears hadn't heard before.

"Got ya!" she could hear a male of her own age talking.

"Ha!" came the instant reply by the voice of another male.

When Lana entered behind the drillmaster, she saw two males of her age lying on the floor, seemingly practicing some sort of wrestling, which made even their tails being winded in each other.

"Ahh, so you decided to use your time for training again." the old one noticed in a dry tone, just to add harder. "But I don't remember the clan having taught you when to fight like dogs."

The one who was lying above, a male with a crested head, blond hair and slightly caramel skin, stood up, first. He first looked truly surprised and hit by this critique, but then he discovered Lana and his face showed that he felt much better.

"We are sorry," he told her, just that he didn't really sound so. "But we have to practice such, if we can't hold our enemies on distant."

His rookery brother, a male hatchling with smoke-black skin and a short wide beak had risen even so and gave Lana an all too well known smile before explaining himself.

"We heard the mad gargoyle is very good in it." he explained, still smiling until the arm of his brother in his ribs, made this smile go away when he looked on Lana.

"And naturally the other enemies of the clan." he added fast, as Lana nearly couldn't understand the solemnly words.

"If ye haven't learned to hold an enemy on distant in the past, then this won't help ye now," the former drillmaster noted scolding and both warriors felt suddenly much younger under her hard look. "Now please go, I have to teach this young one what it means to be a warrior in this clan."

The two males looked surprised to Lana and then left the room, but not before giving her a last smile.

When the males had left the training room, Lana looked to the elder who still looked at the door, slightly irritated.

"Come to the middle of the room, child." the elder ordered.

"Lana." Lana replied, adding on the surprised look of the elder. "My name is Lana, and I'm not a child."

"Ye are part of this clan," the elder explained in a voice, which showed that she would have expected such of a hatchling. "And such, like all who are two generations under mine, ye are my rookery child, as ye are to all the others two generations upwards from yours. Now come and stand here."

Lana sighed and went to the middle of the room where the elder pointed on.

When she arrived there, the drillmaster studied her from up and down.

"What?" Lana finally asked, finding it distressing to be studied in such way.

"I saw chicks with more muscles than you have." the elder noticed accusingly.

"Oh and I'm sure you gave them training before eating them." Lana responded.

The drillmasters eyes shone red for a second, but then she calmed down.

"Respect before elders is something ye obviously have to learn too… not a wonder since with whom you live." she explained in a hard voice.

"Hey, don't…" Lana began, wanting to defend her grandmother.

"But this is not my concern now." the elder continued without giving Lana a chance to continue her protest. "In the coming weeks and months, I will teach you to become a warrior and for so long you may call me teacher."

"Or I could call you by your name?" Lana replied.

"I have none," the teacher explained and Lana even believed to hear pride in her voice. "And ye will see, child, that we don't need none."

"And what if I ask others after you?" Lana asked angrily, even when she could imagine no situation ever she would do so. "Shall I take a picture of you with me?"

The drillmaster closed her eyes and swallowed… this lass was a stubborn one.

"Everyone in the clan will know that ye mean me, child," she explained, feeling her patience running away. "But we aren't here for talking, but to make you a warrior."

"How wonderful…" Lana commented less enthusiastically.

"What!" the elder asked angrily.

Lana didn't comment, but looked away, so the teacher continued.

"Every member of this clan is a warrior, or will become one, by mind as well as by body." The elder explained. "And even though I see the lack of both in ye, at the moment, I know it will come in time."

"Becoming a warrior will give you a vote in the clan," the teacher continued. "Since with the night, he becomes a warrior, and a gargoyle shows…"

"Half-gargoyle." Lana stopped her.

The teacher looked on her with a mix of surprise and irritation.

"I'm just half a gargoyle." her pupil repeated, raising her claw with five talons. "See?"

The teacher did see and while she stroked her face, with her right claw, she suppressed a snarl.

"When a _clan member _becomes a warrior, it shows that they're ready to protect every other member of their clan with their life, as they will be defended themselves." the drillmaster concluded. "And these are the basics… we don't fight for fame through war, we don't fight for fun. The only reason we fight is **to protect,** each other and what we decide being worthy."

The teacher crossed her arms.

"Protection is what holds a clan together, what fills it, what makes it live." she explained and Lana believed to hear passion in the elder's voice. "Time ye learn to protect at least yourself."

Lana had been captured by the speech about protection for a second, but now she was back.

"Your first lesson is how to stand, child." the drillmaster explained.

"Seventeen years too late, I would say." Lana noticed ironically.

This time the elder's face showed no reaction.

"I mean to stand like a warrior, not like a chick." the teacher replied in a hard voice.

Lana looked away angrily, her tail lashing around and her arms crossed in front of her chest.

"Look at me when I speak to ye, child." the elder told her.

Remembering the promise she gave to her mother and hoping to end this hour quicker, Lana did so.

"Ye always have to look to the one who speaks to ye, if friend or enemy." the teacher noticed. "Only cowards look away when they are talked to."

The teacher waited a further second until she saw that the young one's eyes stayed centered on her.

"Now, your arms." she continued. "Ye have to be open for the lectures of the elders and must show it. So let your arms be by your hips."

Slowly, Lana did so, feeling more and more uncomfortable while looking into _her teacher's_ face.

"Now raise your shoulders." the teacher ordered. "A warrior doesn't make herself smaller in the face of trouble, like a sheep, but shows that he is ready to face what comes."

Lana raised her shoulders, feeling a muscle somewhere in her back scream in pain by this.

"Hmm. This seems at least half acceptable." the teacher noticed by this sight, walking around her. "We will work at it and every time ye arrive to your lessons, ye will stand here this way."

"I haven't signed in to the army." Lana commented, letting her shoulders sack back.

The elder looked on her, somewhat losing her nerve.

"No, but ye have asked to learn the way of a warrior." she replied. "And I'll teach it to you, all of it."

When there were no words of defiance, the elder allowed herself a grin.

"You'l learn soon enough that it is to your best interest, as to that of your clan." the teacher explained. "And now you will learn ways to scare your enemies."

Lana groaned.

****

13.08.98; 21:31; Castle Wyvern, Main Hall:

Darlene watched her daughter leave with the elder gargess, allowing a slight smile by her daughter's lack of enthusiasm.

"Now, how do you think your big sister will do?" she asked Gem in her arms.

Her youngest daughter squirmed in her arms, making protesting sounds, which showed that she wanted to be let down.

Darlene smiled even more and set Gem on the ground.

"Right, no reason to worry." she agreed.

While Gem still looked up to her mother, who towered above her like a skyscraper, from her point of view, someone else came running up to her. Before she really registered what hit her, a large tongue went over the infant's face, covering it with saliva and made her laugh, while she fell on her bottom.

Darlene watched how her daughter was welcomed by the big yellow gargbeast, when a voice called her name.

"Sister." a voice, she had learned to know, called her.

Looking up, she discovered Fuchsia, coming along with Desdemona to greet her.

"Hello." Darlene greeted back.

"Lana has already started her training?" Desdemona asked.

"Yes." her sister said.

"What is it?" Fuchsia asked, noticing the slight sad expression in Darlene's face.

"Nothing." she explained. "I just wish I could go see how Lana is doing with her training."

"Don't worry." Desdemona told her. "The teacher trained us good, back then, such she will do for Lana."

Darlene nodded, somehow convinced

"What is with the hatchlings?" she asked.

"Since they have no constant training, they have more energy to jump around." Fuchsia explained with an unhappy grin. "I'm happy that Xanatos offered his estate for them."

Darlene looked around while her sister said this. She just noticed how Jarred ran outside together with two other hatchlings, surely to play one of their games.

"Jarred told me of this." Darlene replied, looking back to her sisters. "He made loops by doing so."

"And I just helped to wash Jaheira and her rookery siblings." Desdemona added, smiling slightly. "It is really good to have young ones around."

Looking down, she saw that Gem now sat on the stomach of the beast, softly stroking it, which it returned by swinging its tail.

"I know." she explained, looking up. "Could we go to them?"

Fuchsia shrugged her shoulders.

"Why not." she explained. "They will be in the rookery."

Darlene looked down to Gem.

"And are you interested to look at your siblings too, Gem?" she asked her youngest daughter.

Having heard her name, Gem looked up to her mother, not really understanding what she had said, but when Darlene extended her claw, she happily took it, climbing from the beast.

Using her mother's claw, Gem rose until she stood on her two still insecure legs.

"Now shall we show your aunts what you already can do?" Darlene asked.

She made a step forward, her claw still backing Gem.

The hatchling first looked insecurely to her mother, then she made a step forward with her left leg, followed a second later by her right one.

"This is wonderful." Desdemona praised the hatchling while kneeling down besides her.

Darlene nodded, smiling proud fully on her daughter.

"Now lets see how far we can go," she told her, taking one step further.

****

13.08.98; 21:42; Castle Wyvern, Courtyard:

The hatchlings sat on the higher part of the castle, already separated in groups by the white-haired, brown-skinned gargoyle, with a beak, who was used to helping his rookery children in their games.

"Okay, kiddos." he began, with a big smile on his beak and a football in his claw. "Here're the rules… each team protects its ring."

He pointed on the two large rings, benefited by Xanatos, and held by sticks in the air, each one on one side around the castle.

"Everybody has to stay in the air and if they land, they have to be in the air again in ten seconds, or they are out." he explained, rising the football. "Landing with this, means a point for the other team, throwing it into the ring, a point for you, and gliding through it with the ball, three points for your team."

The gargoyle leaned against a perch and looked again on the faces of the hatchlings.

"Remember that you have to give the ball after fifteen seconds or it is a point for the other team." He let the ball jump up and down in his claw while he concluded. "Okay, and don't forget no fouls or the other team gets a point. Ten points is the end this time."

Most of the hatchlings nodded, so the gargoyle used the perch to jump into the air, gliding up on an updraft until he had reached the middle of the courtyard.

The two teams joined him, taking positions in front of their rookery, as the rings were called. Meanwhile, their leaders, Eve on the one and Duncan on the other, side glided under the elder, watching each other while feeling the growing tension.

"And GO!" the elder exclaimed.

With this, he threw the ball in the air and retreated from the virtual field by gliding high enough, not to interfere in the game.

Both hatchlings hardly noticed the departure of the elder, instead watching the ball, which first flew higher, before returning the curse. While Duncan just held his position in the air, Eve winkled her wings, diving under her opponent just to use the speed to glide upward through a good updraft.

Making a turn in the air, she glided with the same speed over her brother, to catch the ball above the reach of his claws, and returned into the territory of her team with a scream of triumph.

Jarred smiled at this, as Eve truly was the best glider of them all.

Making a circle, she threw the ball to the hatchling, gliding next to her, right above Jarred and Connor.

Jarred glided forward, already knowing what to do, as in the end it was like football, just a long way better.

A female hatchling of the same age blocked his way, making him stop while the half of the team, who attacked, glided further.

Wishing to follow, Jarred tried to glide left under his blocker, but the female noticed this and blocked the way even before he had arrived there.

She smiled on him in a challenging way, revealing nearly all of her little fangs.

"Ha!" she exclaimed.

Frustrated, Jarred looked for the rest of his team. Half of them had moved to the other teams territory with the ball, and were mostly occupied in flying matches with their opponents.

The one who had taken the ball was encircled by hatchlings of the other team, eager to protect their rookery and the honor of their team. Recognizing his situation, the hatchling threw the ball to Connor, who grabbed it securely, trying to glide through a gap in the enemy line, which had closed far to soon.

Unable to do anything else, Connor threw the ball into the direction of the female hatchling gliding left to him. A hatchling of the other team came diving forward, catching the ball between the team mates, racing aside from Jarred and his opponent, right into the virtual field of Jarred's team.

He didn't come very close to the rookery, since despite half of the hostile team was behind him, the remaining defenders formed a seemingly invincible line in front of him.

A loud whistle, right under him, led his eyes to Mike, who came nearer with high speed. Without thinking much, he threw the ball in the trajectory of his teammate, who caught this securely and raced further through the surprised defense line of the hostile team.

He even made it behind the two defenders, right before their rookery, but he was too far down and too far right to seem a danger to Jarred, who slowly returned to his own half.

Surprising all of the defenders, Mike threw the ball of this unfortunate position, right in the position of the left upper side of the ring, making a point for sure.

A claw stopped the ball right before it entered the circle.

It was Eve, who came diving down with encircled wings, using the speed to once again break through the enemy line.

Some of the grown up gargoyles, who had come to watch the clan's children's game, nodded in approval.

Connor recognized that all of the enemy team were occupied in unsuccessfully trying to stop Eve and used this opportunity by racing past the female, who had blocked his way before.

He even managed to race behind the main line of the defenders before some of them noticed what was going on, and blocked his teammates from racing further.

Eve was blocked by two hatchlings, one in front, and one under her. Feeling time slipping away, she noticed Jarred gliding up to her, and that he was free.

Half a second after he had extended his claws, Jarred felt the ball landing hard, but securely in them and moved forward.

He had free field and the enemy rookery was just some meters ahead, so he could throw the ball in it without problem.

Why make one when you can make three? he thought for himself.

Folding his wings, so that he could fall instead of glide, Jarred approached the ring, thinking he could make it through without problems.

He was wrong.

Jarred had already reached the ring when he found himself sinking too fast to pass the ring completely, without touching it, which would mean no point for his team, and he was in the middle of the ring when his gargoyle instincts took over and he extended his wings.

It wasn't much and even if he would have extended his wings to their full width, he could have come through the ring, but he was too far right and the pain in his right wing showed his failure.

The pain somehow moved through his whole right side and he lost control over his right wing, which now gave no resistance to the wind, so he fell like a stone

To top it off, he let the ball fell down when his claws searched for something to hold on, which was deadly rare in the mid of the air.

Suddenly, and two meters about the hard stone of the castle, his right claw found something to hold on and which held it in return.

This stopped his fall dramatically, so when Jarred landed on the ground, it didn't hurt so much. Hearing his rescuer land beside him, he looked around, seeing the one who had started the game, landing as hard as he had.

"Are you alright?" he asked the hatchling, studying him worriedly.

Jarred nodded and tried to stretch his right wing, but it sent a wave of pain through him, so he let it be.

Meanwhile, some of his playmates had landed even so, foremost Connor and Eve, the game completely forgotten.

"Lad, how are ye?" Agamemnon asked, leading some elders who had decided to look after him.

"Shall we send for your mother?" The elder, who had watched the game, asked him.

Hearing just slightly suppressed giggle, Jarred looked to the other hatchlings, three of whom found this idea seemingly especially funny. While Connor still looked worried on his comrade, Eve glared angrily on her brothers who still thought it to be very funny, as they showed by the grins on their faces.

"No." Jarred explained quickly. "It's okay now."

To prove it, he stretched his wings and forced himself a smile.

"It doesn't even hurt anymore." Jarred lied.

He hoped the elder wouldn't make it worse by calling his mom, even though his wing still hurt, the laughter of the other hatchlings was worse.

The grown up nodded, despite he knew the young one lied and looked to the other hatchlings.

"Okay, young ones, the game goes on." he told them.

He spoke loud so that the ones still in the air could hear him, and picked up the ball while going to the perches to jump in the air.

"Jarred?" Connor asked, as he and Eve were still standing by him while the other hatchlings had already jumped in the air. "Are you really well?"

Jarred nodded.

"Come, lets go…" he told them, giving them a smile. "And win."

A mischievous look appeared on the faces of both of his comrades and together they walked to the perches.

But before he could jump on the perch, and from this into the air, a claw lay on his shoulder and stopped him.

"I think ye should take a rest." Agamemnon told him. "A game which brings pain is no game."

"I'm fine." Jarred protested.

The elder shook his head and made clear that he wouldn't accept this.

"Ten minutes, then you can join your team again," he explained. "I will let one of the other team take a break too, so it is equal."

Jarred wasn't happy about this, but when felt his right wing hurt again, he nodded.

With this, the old gargoyle jumped on the perch and in the air.

"This'll be fast." Connor told his comrade emphatically. "You'll see."

"Yeah, I'll try not to win without you." Eve explained, giving him a smile.

Jarred laughed, by Eve he could very well imagine this.

He watched his comrades, as they jumped first onto the perches and then in the air. He then jumped onto one perch on his own, looking how the game went on and counting the seconds.

****

13.08.98; 21:46; Castle Wyvern, the floor near the rookery:

Darlene walked beside her two sisters and her daughter, who had decided to walk on her four feet again.

"And you think this may come from the stress?" Desdemona asked her.

Darlene nodded.

"I heard this may even lead to a stomach ulcer." she said, relieved to be able to speak with someone about this. "At least if this lasts over long time."

"You should go to the healer." Fuchsia suggested. "She surely knows some leaves, which may help."

"It has been okay for two nights." Darlene replied, smiling on her sisters' worries. "I don't think there is a reason for this now."

"What has our sister said on this?" Desdemona asked, unknown of the look that Fuchsia gave her by this, when they stopped in front of the doors to the rookery.

Knowing that by 'the sister', her sister actually meant her mother, Darlene shook her head.

"Mother is occupied," she explained, picking up Gem from the ground and placing her on her hip. "When she doesn't search in her books for a way to fight against Lucifia, she is leading Nightstone. Actually she is working to make a big deal, as far I know."

If she just would give some of this time to her daughter, Darlene thought, looking to the doors of the rookery.

Desdemona read her look and carefully opened the doors.

While they entered, the three gargess had to smile by what they saw.

Three of the hatchlings lay on the ground, which was laid out with straw. A gargess sat beside them, letting a small colored ball hanging on a cord fly above them, which they watched with their eyes full of wonder.

To see it better, a female hatchling turned from her stomach to her back, beginning to suck on her tail by this.

Other elders, who were at the moment engaged in a talk, held the other hatchlings, with Jaheira among them.

Like Goliath said… Darlene thought, the rookery is the heart of the clan.

Yet, this place needed a little renovation in her eyes.

It wasn't things she hadn't looked on when the rookery had been filled just with eggs, but which made her wonder every time she saw them now, since the eggs were hatched.

The room was practical empty.

It wasn't that Darlene had had many things in the room she had lived in for the first part of her life, at least compared to her own children, but at least she had carpet on the ground instead of straw, and wallpaper on the walls instead of blank stone.

The only signs of comfort that Darlene noticed were the changing table, and a few toys like balls and blocks.

Not that it seemed to bother the hatchlings so far.

One rookery mother, her skin green, her head hairless but for a crest of green spikes and skin between them, running down it, looked up to the visitors with a hatchling in her arms.

"Look who is coming here." she told the male hatchling in her arms and turned him so that he could see them clearly.

The hatchlings eyes shimmered in curiosity when he saw who arrived. Gem, in her mother's arms, looked curious too, when the interest of the rest of the room turned to them.

"Hello." Desdemona greeted rookery mothers and hatchlings alike. "We just wanted to take a look at the young ones."

The rookery mother, in front of them, nodded in approval and was going to say something.

Before she could do so, the elder whom Darlene had once identified as the leader of the rookery mothers, came forth, holding Jaheira in her arms.

"You come too late." the rookery mother, with yellow skin and gray hair, explained to them, but just looking to Darlene. "They need their nap now."

"Oh." Darlene replied, her feelings shifting between disappointment and anger by the hostile look she saw in the rookery mother's eyes.

"Maybe we could help to bring them to sleep." Fuchsia suggested, noticing the tension.

"A good idea, lass." the rookery mother who had noticed them first noticed. "A rookery song comes better if more of the clan sing to it."

To Darlene's surprise, even the yellow-skinned gargoyle mother nodded slightly, and when she turned her eyes down, she noticed two green eyes capturing her own.

Was it knowledge she saw in them, recognition? Had the time she had been there given her a place in the heart of the little hatchling that was her sister?

Jaheira gave her no answer, as she turned her eyes away to another interesting thing, as there were many in her world.

For the glimpse of a moment, Darlene believed she saw the eyes of the hatchling turn red and her lips turning to a snarl.

Surely this was just her imagination.

Darlene looked up again and found the eyes of the rookery mother again lasting on her, while other females arrived and took up the hatchlings from the earth.

Slowly, but firmly, the elder began to hum a melody, which Darlene recognized at once, since she had heard it so many times before and still sung it to Gem sometimes.

Not long later, most of the hatchlings were sunk in sleep.

****

13.08.98; 21:51; Castle Wyvern, Training room:

Lana already felt her throat becoming rough through the growls and snarls she had already emitted.

"This sounds acceptable for once," the teacher noticed, without sounding really satisfied.

"Yeah?" Lana asked, rubbing her throat.

"Some weeks of training and this could pass as a real war cry." the teacher continued, unimpressed. "Now it is time for you to learn how to fight."

She took a step back.

"Attack me." the teacher ordered her.

Lana looked at her skeptically, knowing what this would lead to.

"Come on, we don't have all night." the teacher demanded.

Lana half-heartily tried to punch her opponent, but the elder gargoyle easily dodged this.

"I want to see more spirit in this, lass." the elder censured.

Lana did so and threw herself on her teacher, the claws extended to bring her down by her hips.

The elder gargess saw this coming and stepped aside, making Lana land on her stomach.

"Every hatchling would have done this better," the teacher noticed.

Lana sighed on the earth…

Why couldn't mom just ground me forever? Lana asked herself.

****

13.08.98; 22:12; Castle Wyvern, Floor near the rookery:

The three gargesses, one with a half-sleeping hatchling in her arms, slowly walked along the corridor, having had left the rookery together with most of the rookery mothers, leaving just three to watch over the sleeping hatchlings.

"They know how to put little ones to sleep." Darlene noticed, remembering the problems she had had with her own children.

"Don't believe it is always so easy." Desdemona explained. "There are nights when we can't bring them to sleep, no matter how hard we try."

Darlene nodded.

"Mother is very good in such." she said "Getting hatchlings to sleep and… I wish she would be here."

"Why?" Fuchsia asked icily.

Darlene realized she had just made a mistake. "Sister, I know what you think of my mother." she began. "But I hope that she would play a role in the life of the hatchlings."

"Oh, you mean like the role she played in ours?" Fuchsia replied angrily, now standing in front of her. "Killing us all and running away?"

"Don't let us…" Desdemona went between them, but her sister didn't let her finish.

"Why not?" Fuchsia nearly snarled, making Gem wake up and cry in surprise. "She caused our deaths and you act like nothing has happened."

"I don't want you to do so." Darlene said, while stroking her crying daughter's hair to calm her down. "But she is part of my life and I ask you to accept this."

"I don't know if I can do this." Fuchsia replied, turning around and walking away.

Darlene wanted to say something, but Desdemona laid a claw on her shoulder and stopped her, her face making sure what she meant.

"I didn't want this to happen." Darlene explained while rocking Gem in her arms.

"I know." Desdemona noticed, looking after her sister. "But our sister is still an open wound to her, as to others in the clan."

Darlene nodded, knowing very well what her sister meant.

"I just hope…" she didn't say any further.

The pain came harder than it had ever before, maybe because she was so distracted, or maybe because of something else.

Darlene had to put one claw on the wall, and she felt Gem slip from her arm, but Desdemona reacted fast and grabbed the crying Gem.

"Sister!" she cried out, laying one claw on her sister's shoulder while holding Gem securely with the other.

"These pains…." Darlene began, but stopped, as she rubbed her stomach with her free claw.

Three gargoyles, two males and a female around Desdemona's generation, who had just entered the floor, stopped their chatting and looked worriedly on them.

"Come, we need to take her to Dr. Moore." Desdemona told her clan siblings.

The others did so, walking closer to Darlene with worried expressions, but she stopped them with a claw, leaning against the wall.

"No, it's okay." she explained, actually forcing herself to smile. "The pain is already gone."

This wasn't the whole truth, as the instant pain was away, but there still was a feeling like echoes of it.

"Sister, you will come to the medical station or I'll drag you to it." Desdemona told her, rocking the crying Gem in her arm. "Or better yet, I'll call your mother and let her do it, but you will come."

Darlene looked into the eyes of her sister, seeing an expression she recognized all too well from when her mother had told her to clean up her room.

"Okay," she gave in. "I think a little check up might be needed."

And this was the truth.

****

13.08.98; 22:23; Castle Wyvern, Special training room:

Moore looked, as Hudson lifted up the dumbbell for the thirtieth time, stretching the still existing muscles in his right arm.

"Good." Moore noticed. "I think the hour is over."

Hudson looked up to the doctor.

"I don't feel tired yet, doctor." he replied in heavy Scottish accent.

"You don't have to…" Moore explained. "Your muscles shall get used to this when we make this harder, tomorrow night."

Hudson looked up to the doctor, who could see the protest forming in his eyes.

"Besides…" Moore continued before the elder gargoyle could protest. "The meal starts soon and as your doctor, I order you to take it."

The protest in the gargoyle's eyes died and he gave him a nod.

"We will resume the rehabilitation the next time." Moore explained.

He looked first to Hudson, then to Deborah who stood leaning on the wall, as she had done most of the time during the training.

"Then…" before Moore could continue, the door opened and a worried female looked in.

"Doctor?" she asked, sounding urgent. "We need you in the station."

Moore nodded and looked back to his current patient.

"Go then, doctor." Hudson told him "We are done here."

Without looking around, Moore followed the female outside, leaving the mates alone.

Deborah thought about what was going on, and why Moore was needed, and a part of her wished to go to with him, but then she looked to her mate who stayed sitting on the ground and she decided otherwise, without a second thought.

"The doctor is right," she explained. "The meal will be served soon."

"Aye," he replied, having used the dumbbell some more times and now placing it to the ground, "and I will take it with the rest of the clan."

"The dishes will be already at our places." his mate told him, picking up the dumbbell and bringing it to the locker. "I have told the clan's cook that we will be taking the meal in the hall already."

For the first time since he had woken up after the operation, Hudson laughed.

"Ye still surprise me, my love," he noticed, chuckling.

Deborah looked back on Hudson and gave him a smile, but it was more a smile of relief than anything else. A hope that her mate wouldn't sink in such a dark hole, as she had feared.

Then she turned to the locker and opened it, putting the dumbbell back in its place.

"Wait!" Hudson told her before she closed it. "Bring me the crutches."

Deborah froze for a second, looking to the crutches hanging in front of her, then she took them and closed the locker.

"The doctor won't like it." she noticed, going back to her mate.

"He is too worried." Hudson stated, now again kneeling on one leg near to the wall. "I fought harder fights than this."

With this, he slowly erected, using the wall to draw himself up.

"Yes," she remembered, handing him one crutch. "Most of them we fought together."

Hudson hesitated, looking into the face of his mate and trying to puzzle out the look in it. Finally, he took one of the crutches and propped himself on it, using his free claw to softly stroke Deborah's face.

"Aye," the old warrior replied, giving her a grin, "and I don't want to miss you on my side, in this one."

Deborah returned the slight smile and gave him the other crutch.

"Could you open the door please?" Hudson asked her, his face still lifted.

His mate nodded and when she opened the door, her smile was wider.

****

13.08.98; 22:51; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The clan had gathered to take the meal, roasted pig this time, just that it wasn't the whole clan who had come together Goliath overlooked the room where all his life was concentrated and found something painfully missing.

"Hey, Big Guy." a lovely voice beside him said and he felt the touch of a warm hand on his shoulder. "Don't make such a face."

Slightly surprised, he looked down.

"Which face?" he asked, honestly confused.

Elisa gave him a smile. "The I have to bear all the worries of the world' face." she told him, touching his face. "Hudson is tough."

Goliath slightly nodded, thinking how true this was and loosing himself a bit in the eyes of his mate, coming closer to her face while stroking her soft hair…

"And there are the two turtledoves." a teasing voice came from Goliaths left side.

The mates looked up to see Thersities, sitting right beside Goliath, in front of Othello who held a place for his mate who was still amiss.

"Brother." Goliath greeted back, not showing if he felt disturbed by this.

"Yeah, I heard love would enlarge the appetite." his rookery brother with the twisted horn noticed.

"Then our cook has to be really lovesick." another male of their rookery replied, and caused common laughter at the table while some looked to Broadway who just entered with two large roasted spits, cooked by him and some hatchlings who had kitchen duty this time, making even Elisa smile a bit.

Goliath didn't smile, as he had never liked it when one of his rookery siblings made fun about the other.

The laughter died when surprised murmurs reached the table, the sort where Goliath knew was more than just the usual talk in the clan.

Looking up, he discovered something, which made his heart lift up. It was his mentor, entering the hall with his mate and using crutches. Ignoring the surprised glances, and surprisingly fast, Hudson went over to the table where some of his rookery siblings sat.

Goliath thought for one moment about standing up and going to greet his old friend, but then decided against it, since Hudson already seemed engaged in a talk with Agamemnon… a talk in which Hudson had barely been able to open his mouth.

"Didn't I tell you?" Elisa asked him, relief in her voice. "Now let's eat."

Goliath nodded, standing up and taking his plate to join his clan by taking the meal.

Half of the clan already stood around what had been brought in, taking roast and potatoes alike.

It was then when Thersities found something missing.

"Has anyone seen Darlene?" he asked, addressing it to his clan-mates around him.

Some faces, formerly concentrated on the great look and smell in front of them, turned around.

"She may be with my mate." Othello noticed, holding two plates in his hands. "Usually she is punctual."

"They were in the medical station when we left them." a female noticed.

"What?" Goliath asked, surprised and worried.

"Her stomach was hurting," a male beside her explained to the crowd around him, who now had become silent. "But it was already gone when we left."

The gargoyles around him looked on him in slight shock and when Goliath still was taking breath to formulate a question, he heard the sound of breaking plates.

Turning to the sound, he saw Jarred, formerly standing in a group of hatchlings, now running on all fours in the direction of the medical station.

Goliath was going to order him to stop, but knew Jarred would most likely not hear him, so he let it be.

Then the other hatchlings began following Jarred. "Stop!" he ordered both the hatchlings he was now looking at, especially Eve and Connor and the rest of the clan of whom few seemed temped to follow their example.

It became quiet and everybody looked on the leader.

"We won't help Darlene if we all cram into the medical station." Goliath explained looking around.

"I, Elisa and my brother…" he looked to Othello, "will look after her and then tell the rest of you if she has something serious."

Elisa and Goliath exchanged looks, which said something faster than words could, and both mates nodded at the same time.

"Hey," Thersities protested beside his brother. "I want to see her, too."

"I, too." Fuchsia said, stepping forth. "Please."

Goliath looked in the eyes of his sister, then into those of his brother and gave them a short nod.

Handing their plates to the people standing around, the group walked out the room, leaving a worried clan behind them.

****

13.08.98; 23:17; Castle Wyvern, A floor:

Lana wandered along the corridor, happy for the moment of silence and peace for her tortured muscles.

She hadn't believed that she would ever be happy about having a meal with these guys, but now she did, or more precisely her stomach did.

It was when she was thinking about what would be served today, when Lana heard the sound of fast footsteps coming nearer.

Surprised, she saw Jarred running towards her on all fours.

"Look where you're going!" Lana told him while catching him on his shoulders "What's going on, squirt?"

"Something is wrong with Mom." he explained, his voice full of panic "They brought her to Dr. Moore."

"What?" Lana exclaimed, feeling the same panic rising in her when she saw in her brother's eyes. "Why? Was there…"

But her brother didn't answer on this. Indeed, he didn't even listen, but managed to break loose from his big sister's grip and ran down the floor.

Instead of thinking, Lana decided to follow her brother up to the tail, even though she felt uncomfortable at using all her fours for this, like some sort of animal.

It was then when she heard the voices of females, one of which was definitely that of Angela.

"They didn't!" a voice exclaimed giggling.

"The did. And they needed ten seconds to loose the knot they made themselves, I guess…" Angela's voice stopped suddenly. "Jarred, what…"

From the way the sentences ended, Lana guessed that Jarred hadn't stopped this time and nearly flying around the corner, she learned this was correct.

Ahead of her, Lana saw two things, her brother's tail vanishing by another corner, followed by the rest of his body, and Angela, looking after him as perplexed as the two gargesses by her side.

Lana had raced through half of the distance between them, when they noticed her.

"Lana, what is going on?" her aunt asked, stepping in her way. "Why is Jarred so upset?"

"He said mom was with Dr. Moore." Lana said, stopping and standing up on her two legs. "Don't know what she has, but he sounded scared."

Angela's eyes grew big in shock and then she stepped aside and turned to the direction where Jarred had gone.

"Come." she told her niece flatly, and when she nodded, she began racing further again with the other gargesses following her.

They reached the medical station in one second, just that it seemed to Lana to float like hours.

They entered the medical station not really as fast as they had run to her, but fast enough to make scratches in the ground when they stopped, finding whom they searched.

Jarred had found her first sitting on a bed and now embraced her strongly, while Darlene returned this embrace and tried to calm him down.

"It's okay." she calmed him down. "The doctor is just making some tests."

"Mom?" Lana asked, coming closer, searching her mother's face for any signs of sickness. "What have you got?"

Darlene looked up, noticing her eldest daughter, her sister and the other young females the first time.

"I had a little pain attack in my stomach." she explained. "Your aunt thought it best to let Moore do a check up."

Lana turned around, surprised to find Desdemona standing behind her, holding Gem in her arms.

"And what has he said?" Lana asked her mother again.

"He still has to make some more tests." Darlene explained, standing up and looking down to Jarred. "But I feel good, it was surely just the stress over the last few nights."

Lana looked skeptically on her.

"And you really feel good, mum?" Jarred asked worried.

"Yes." Darlene explained, stroking her son's hair. "The pain was just a bit bigger this time."

"_This_ time?" Lana asked, feeling the words hit her. "You had this before!"

Before Darlene got a chance to answer on this, the door to the medical station was opened again and surprised, she saw Goliath, his mate, entering along with some others.

"Goliath…" she began surprised… just to continue dryly. "How many know I'm here?"

"The whole clan." Goliath explained.

Great, Darlene thought sarcastically. So much for keeping this low.

"Sister, how are you?" Fuchsia asked, coming forth with Thersities while Othello moved to his mate.

Before her sister had a chance to answer, Moore entered, or better yet, he let the clan know he was there since he had been standing there silently for some seconds already.

"I think I can tell you what's wrong." he told the gathered gargoyles, including a human. "At least, if you wish so."

The last sentences were directed to Darlene.

Darlene appreciated the doctor's attempt to respect her private sphere, but nodded, knowing it was better to let the clan know what was going on with her than to leave them in the dark… especially if they would learn it for sure, sooner or later.

"You're pregnant." Moore explained.

Everybody in the room, even Gem, first looked on the doctor, then on Darlene in absolute silence.

Darlene blinked. "This can't be." she practically whispered.

"It is." Moore replied. "The tests are clear."

"Clear?" Desdemona asked, stepping closer. "Our psychology is different from that of humans, maybe your test failed."

The doctor looked on her.

"The hormones, that the test found, can be found by all creatures on earth." he explained, sounding a bit offended.

He looked back to Darlene, who felt totally thrown, as if to search for an answer she didn't had.

"Mom, how could you do this?" a shocked voice asked.

This came from Lana and when Darlene looked at her daughter, seeing the look in her face and seeing the balled fists, she instantly knew what her thought was.

"Lana." she tried to stop her weakly, feeling herself still numb with shock.

"So soon after father's death, how could you…." Lana continued, feeling anger rising in her.

"**LANA!**" Darlene screamed, jumping up with red burning eyes and stopping her before she could say something that would bring her house arrest until the end of her days. "I have not been with anyone since your father's death."

Gem began to cry and Desdemona tried rather unsuccessfully to stop her from this, but Darlene didn't notice this, in this moment, but looked into her eldest daughter's eyes until she turned away, showing that she understood.

Then Darlene turned to Dr. Moore.

"My husband's death was over a year ago." she told him. "I can't be pregnant, since I would have delivered already if I was."

"Your husband?" Moore asked surprised "He was human I suppose?"

Darlene nodded.

"I and my children were humans, too." she explained. "But the spell began to ease and we had to become gargoyles again."

Silence spread in the room and while Moore still thought why he was seemingly always the last to learn of such, Elisa coughed.

"I can't say I know much about magic." Elisa noticed. "Couldn't the spell somehow have delayed the pregnancy?"

For a moment, Darlene starred in the air, thinking about it.

"By the dragon." she sighed, sitting on the bed, and somehow feeling as if she was going to collapse.

****

14.08.98; 00:13; Castle Wyvern, The big tower:

Deborah watched her mate take the steps with an ease she hadn't believed he could accomplish, with the crutches. On the first steps, he had had some problems, but after the tenth he seemingly had worked it out.

After the meal, which had been surprisingly quiet, thanks to the news of Darlene's pregnancy they had received, they talked with some of their rookery siblings, all noticing how well Hudson looked.

This was something she had to agree with them, as her mate looked better, much better than he had when he had been lying on the bed, or even when they did the training.

She had no doubt that this was due to the fact that he was together with the clan again. They had visited him, regularly, but it wasn't the same, as he hadn't been the active part of the clan, as he had always been.

And there are other things, Deborah thought when she stepped out on the place where their perches were.

"You're sure?" Deborah asked, reaching her mate's perch, and turning around to see him coming through the door.

"Aye." Hudson explained, coming closer. "There is nothing like a little glide after a meal."

His mate nodded, seeing him settling on the battlement while leaning his crutches on it.

Quickly, Hudson turned around on the battlement while Deborah jumped on the perch beside him.

While she jumped in the air, she noticed the slight glance of hesitation in his eyes, the same she felt when she thought about how the loss of his leg would affect his ability to fly.

For a second, she thought about suggesting to him to use the top of the tower, but by then he had already made the jump in the air. A moment he seemed to fall, and Deborah folded her wings to dive after him, but this proved unnecessary since the wind caught him and he managed to glide relatively stable beside him.

"The wind has me back, my love." Hudson told her, smiling over his face.

Deborah nodded, suddenly remembering the first time she had glided beside him.

Back when they were but hatchlings, just having climbed the cliffs they then jumped from, trusting themselves alone to the wind for the first time, always under the watchful eyes of the grown up clan members.

Deborah gave her mate a deep smile.

"Aye." she replied, grabbing her loves claw and looking in his face. "Lets make a glide."

****

14.08.98; 00:21; Destine Mansion, The living room:

Darlene landed securely on the ground, holding a sleeping Gem in her arms and hearing how two other children landed shortly behind her.

If she had been interested, she would have noticed that her two elder children now landed much better than they had just weeks before, but she didn't. In fact she was far away and had forgotten how Thersities and Brooklyn had departed from them, still in the air, after guarding them on their way home, the minute they left.

She didn't notice Shade coming out through the door, when she entered, and she didn't notice how Lana and Jarred exchanged worrisome glances behind her back.

"Mum, are you okay?" Lana asked, coming closer to her mother while Jarred closed the door behind him.

This is the big question isn't it? Darlene asked herself.

She looked into her daughter's brown eyes, eyes that resembled so much that of her father… Would the baby have brown eyes, too?

Hesitating, she nodded.

"Mom, what I said before at the castle." Lana began, feeling her cheeks getting hot. "I'm sorry."

Darlene seemed to look through her daughter for a moment, then she focused her eyes on her.

"It's okay." she explained, slowly handing Gem over to her. "Really."

For a moment, she looked at her youngest daughter, sleeping innocently in her elder sister's arms, sucking on her thumb and softly stroked her hair.

"Put her down in the crib for her nap." she told her two elder children. "I'll be with your grandmother."

With this, she walked down the stairs again, sinking in her thoughts.

Somehow a part of her mind still hadn't believed what the doctor had said until he had used the ultrasound, or whatever was the newer version of it, to show her a picture of what was growing inside her.

She hadn't seen much, but a vague scheme, definitely humanoid and already with a beating heart.

Darlene stopped at the middle of the stairs.

"By the dragon..." she whispered, slowing touching her stomach.

Then she had seen wings, tiny but clearly, and the other limbs…

There wasn't more to see, even for Dr. Moore, at least in this early stage.

Early stage? Darlene thought. Or is it already the last stage?

Moore had hinted at the idea that the baby might have literally just been conceived, right before Paul had died, which was soon before she had become a gargoyle again. And that through the magic she had used and the different kind of cell structures, which had been mixed, the fetus had been captured at this stage, becoming no more than a tumor and that the pains came from her immune system trying to fight it…

NO! she screamed against these thoughts. This can't be…

Before her, she saw the door to her mother's workroom slightly open and noticed for the first time that Shade had come with her, sensing that something wasn't right.

Carefully, she opened the door, seeing her mother look up from her PC and her desk filled with files.

"Mother?" she told her.

"Darlene?" her mother began, as she rose from her seat, sensing from the look on her daughter that something was wrong. "Child, what is it? What has happened?"

For the first time since leaving the castle, Darlene noticed the tears dripping from her own eyes.

"We have to talk." she explained, feeling her throat become rough.

****

14.08.98; 00:56; Castle Wyvern, the tower:

Hudson landed, together with his mate, near the point from where they had started. The glide had been short, just some gliding around the castle, nothing much, but it had been good, at least for Deborah.

"Are you alright?" Hudson's mate asked him, trying not to sound too worried.

"Aye." Hudson explained, taking deep breathes. "Just a bit out of breath."

This was a real understatement, as he had _never_ felt such KO, at least not for such a small distance.

Still fighting with his lungs, Hudson sat down, settling his left leg on the ground and took his crutches, standing just one meter away.

"Hey, leave it!" a loud and angry voice came from the courtyard. "It's mine!"

"No, I won!" another voice shouted, a female this time.

Looking over the battlement, the mates spotted two hatchlings fighting for a wooden sword, their rookery siblings having made a circle around them, very interested in who would win.

"Seemingly our young ones have too much energy." Hudson noticed with a scowl on his scarred face.

"Aye." Deborah agreed. "They miss their training, but that can be helped."

Still standing on the battlement, Deborah prepared to jump down, but before she did so she looked to her mate.

"Go on then." Hudson told her with a smile. "I will use the stairs."

Deborah nodded and jumped in the air.

With a sigh, Hudson turned around, setting his crutches in the direction of the stairs.

He was in the doorway when the pain began.

It was as if someone had stabbed his heart with a sharp dagger and the pain seemed to spread all over his body, making him sink down on the ground, just leaning on the wall.

No, Hudson thought, hearing in the distance how his mate rebuked the hatchlings. By the dragon, no!

Sitting on the ground, clutching his chest and taking deep breaths, the old gargoyle closed his eyes.

To be continued…


End file.
